Affordable Small Business CRM Options

Small businesses often ask me whether CRM systems are only for bigger companies as the common misconception is that they are very expensive.

The good news is that there are many inexpensive options available for small businesses starting from $0! These are usually “cloud” or web based solutions which only require a web browser to use. There is no need to invest in any expensive hardware . You pay a monthly amount to use it and there are even “mobile” versions you can use on the go with your tablet or smartphone.

One example is Zoho CRM which is free for up to 3 users and does a good job of managing contacts and interactions with your customers. The professional edition is only $12 per user per month.

Here is an interesting case study for a small business CRM implementation.

Your Life Your Body

Your Life Your Body (YLYB) is a sole trader company owned by Jodie Hopkins. Jodie is an exercise physiologist who creates personal programs consisting of corrective exercises for clients. Jodie is one of the attendees for the DEP workshops and was selected for the program for her keen interest in implementing a CRM system for her business.

YLYB required a CRM system to manage clients, activities and invoicing more effectively.

The main requirements that the CRM needed to fulfil were:

To have a central database for all clients

To facilitate contacting clients and scheduling appointments

To facilitate client profiling

To allow for client documents to be uploaded into the system attached to client

To assist automation of sending marketing material to clients

To have the ability to create invoices in the CRM and track status until paid.

To have mobile access to the CRM from iPhone and iPad

To link a web form to the CRM from the website for leads generation

Outcome

Since Jodie has started using Zoho CRM she’s found real benefits in running her business more effectively including:

Manage appointments online

Mobile device access to CRM data – even when no internet connection

Synced to iPhone, iPad and laptop

Having a central online repository for client contracts, documents and templates.

Automating invoice creation and tracking until paid

Automatic generation of reports.

Automatically capture leads from website when e-book is downloaded

So as you can see, it won’t cost you an arm or a leg to start managing your customer database, interactions and automating your business through a CRM solution. So what are you waiting for? Get started today!
photo credit: Tax Credits via photopincc

Sankhya Consultants are experts in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Data Mining and Predictive Analytics.
We have over 20 years experience in the IT industry and have completed CRM implementations in various industries.
We also have extensive knowledge in Data Mining , Business Intelligence and Predictive Analytics.
In a nutshell we work with your business and help you:
- Understand your CRM business objectives and advise you on how to build fantastic relationships with your clients to get more sales and repeat business.
- Streamline and automate your pre-sales, sales and post-sales processes to help save you time so you can work ON your business not IN your business.
- Select the right CRM tool for your needs
- Configure the tool specifically for your business
- Train your people to use the tool effectively in line with your business objectives
If you already have an existing CRM system, but not sure if you are using it to it’s fullest potential, we can help you out there too.
So please contact us to see how we can help you save more time and build long lasting relationships with your clients.

One comment on “Affordable Small Business CRM Options”

Currently i am working as a data mining consultant working only on zoho crm in an organization.could you please tell me what are tools should i learn so that i can make my career into analytics.
my current role as a fresher is search data from various resources and put it on the zoho crm and also crosschek whether the data already exist or not.
please kindly reply.